MEXICO CITY: Mexico marked six months Thursday since the disappearance of 43 college students, with a new protest planned by parents rejecting the investigation's conclusion that a gang slaughtered the young men.
The case has become the biggest challenge of President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration, with a Reforma newspaper opinion poll showing that his approval rating remained at a low 39 percent.
Relatives will lead a march in Mexico City and demand that the National Electoral Institute suspend the June 7 election in Guerrero, the southern state where the 43 students disappeared.
As long as the students remain missing and "the government is not rid of narco-politicians, it's not possible to have a civic celebration," said Meliton Ortega, uncle of a missing student.
Authorities say police in the town of Iguala abducted the aspiring teachers on the night of September 26 and handed them over to the Guerreros Unidos drug gang, which killed them and incinerated their bodies.
Only one of the 43 students has been identified among the charred remains that were found in a landfill and a river in the town of Cocula, near Iguala.
Authorities have arrested around 100 people, including several Iguala and Cocula police officers, Guerreros Unidos gang members, and Iguala mayor Jose Luis Abarca and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda.
The students say they had traveled to Iguala in hijacked buses to raise funds for their left-wing college.
Investigators believe Abarca ordered police to intercept the students over fears they would disrupt a speech by his wife, and that the gang confused them with members of a rival criminal group.
Human rights groups have criticized the investigation, saying it relied too much on witnesses instead of physical evidence to conclude that the students were killed.
"We express our concern over the recent attempts by the Mexican government to discredit and not take into account the recommendations and observations of international human rights organizations," Amnesty International and other rights groups said in a joint statement.
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